notesfromthetrenchesIII

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

The longer version

Rob was finishing up the trim work on our window seats in the kitchen. I was outside on our sunporch watching the little kids who were playing in the back yard.

Suddenly Rob came running out screaming that he had to go to the ER right then. I started screaming back, "Shut-UP! I know you are joking." And even though he was holding up a bloody stump and blood was pouring down his arm, I kept yelling at him to stop the joking around. After a couple of times of going back and forth I came to my senses and told him to get in the car.

Before we left I wrapped the base of his thumb in duct tape, what's not to love about this tape, to stop the bleeding. It also pretty effectively cut off the circulation to his thumb so it wasn't hurting as much as it could, and would once we arrived at the er and they cut the duct tape off.

We did find out that chopping of most of your thumb does not give you a free pass out of the waiting room. Also, that only men come to the emergency clutching bloody rags to their bodies, having cut, chopped, or blown off parts of their bodies. And with every man, sits a woman shaking her head.

Basically he cut off the back half of his thumb. Almost as if you scooped out the entire area, including the bone, behind your fingernail, yet left the fingernail pretty much intact.

Since it was a holiday weekend, Rob had to wait until today, Tuesday, to see the hand surgeon, who will repair the damage. He will have to have the tip of his finger cut off and a skin graft from his hip.

To say that he is bummed out, would be an understatement. He is also disappointed in the level of pain relief afforded by his Percocet prescription.

Not that it stopped him from finishing the building of the window seats or coaching baseball practice. He's tough like that, or crazy.

32 Comments:

Blogger Karen Bodkin said...

Wow. Poor guy. Now I feel bad about the joke I made on your previous entry. Hope the pain goes away very soon.

By the way, I looked through your flickr account yesterday (I'm a fairly new reader. To your blog, not in general) and I have to say, you take some amazing photos. Serious talent. And the toddler chair instructions cracked me right up. Your blog is top-notch, Chris!

7:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

bless his heart....
You never know how much you use a finger (or thumb) until you hurt it and CAN'T use it...
hope the healing is fast!
(good excuse to sit on the couch and watch tons of movies now....)

7:50 AM  
Blogger robiewankenobie said...

i have two brothers that are not of the full fingered variety. i am told that you learn to work around things. oh, and that there can never be enough medication to quell that pain. youch!

8:11 AM  
Blogger Jennifer said...

Oh wow, hope he feels better soon! What did you do with the kids while you were at the E.R.? (Sorry. I am always trying to figure out the logistics of what to do with my baby if something happens. I guess I am stil new to this.)

Poor Rob, though, man that cannot have been fun. I can't believe he finished the trim, though. The window seats sound lovely and I hope you post pictures so I can see!!!

How are your gums doing? Better?

8:12 AM  
Blogger Katie said...

Um, yikes! I hope he heals quickly.

8:52 AM  
Blogger Me said...

Yes... you must ALWAYS have the camera ready. Especially with all those boys in the house. :)

I have a similar photo of me in the same position (different finger) from last July. But being a WOMAN, I stopped the knife just in time to AVOID surgery (unlike the male counterparts obviously). :)

Sorry to hear it's going to involve surgery and a skin graft. Ugh. Tell him he has the sympathy of a couple in Iowa... and I hope the surgeon says it will be a 'quick and easy' surgery!!!!!

8:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yikes. The thought of that makes me sick. I hope the hand surgeon does marvelous work.

8:55 AM  
Blogger Meg said...

Percocet makes everything better. Even severed limbs, apparently.

Rob, sorry to hear about this! My dad once cut off 2 fingers with a weedwhacker, so you know I'm sympathizing in a way that only a woman with an incredulous look on her face can.

9:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh wow! You're still tougher than me! I would have passed out! I was woozy just reading this! Poor guy.
I hope the pain gets better and they can fix it well enough. That's scary. I'm still waiting for that to happen to mine because he's a contractor, but it hasn't yet. Knock on wood. He always seems to slice himself whenever he has a razor blade in his hand though! Lot's of stitches!
Well, I can't say enough how much I hope he gets better soon! Good luck today! Hope that his hip doesn't hurt too much after today too!

9:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Holy Cow! Yuck (I'm feeling a little queasy after your excellent description) and OUCH!

I am impressed he finished the window seat and couched baseball. That's pretty amazing.

9:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG! And ouch! What, they didn't send him home on a morphine drip? Will he share his percocet with you for your gums? That is GOOD stuff!

It certainly was a weekend for injured digits. I broke my pinkie finger yesterday. It looks like a little pink and purple sausage. Makes typing tough...

9:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Or rather...COACHing baseball...I bet he wished he was COUCHing it! ;-) I wish we could spellcheck our comments (or maybe I should at least read them before I post).

9:37 AM  
Blogger c said...

OMG! I am so sorry! That's amazing that he went on to coach baseball. Give him my sympathy. It's traumatic to hurt yourself that way. My dad was also a home handyman and had one finger that was shorter than the others due to an accident. My mom actually knit a one finger mitten for his 'shorter than the others' finger because its circulation wasn't as good as the others and in cold weather he'd wear that silly finger mitten to keep it warm... But really, I hope Rob's thumb heals well and soon.

10:06 AM  
Blogger B.E.C.K. said...

Ack! Poor thing! My brother cut part of his finger with an electric hedge trimmer when he was a teenager -- awful stuff. I hope your husband's surgery goes well and that the doc is able to fix his thumb. Off to put my head between my knees now...

10:13 AM  
Blogger Kate Giovinco Photography said...

Ouch!

10:22 AM  
Blogger Kristin said...

delurking to offer condolences (to you really, as your husband has the percocet to help him along) and also, i laughed out loud when i saw the er photo... i love that despite the pain, you knew a good photo op when you saw one!

11:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wendy, I use AspellFox. It is a download through Firefox (the browser). I can use it to spell check any text that I have written, even comments. And since I can't spell for beans, I use it constantly.

11:28 AM  
Blogger halloweenlover said...

I had to slowly back away from my bagel after reading that before I vomited. Poor poor Rob. And poor you! I hope you are both feeling better soon.

11:28 AM  
Blogger Annalise said...

OMG! It sounds absolutely horrific. Hope it heals fast.

11:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is it wrong how I awesome I find this story?

But poor Rob, though.

12:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Will he be able to bend it? Poor Rob. If the percoset isn't working to weel, maybe he can get something else. Or supplement with Margaritas.

12:40 PM  
Blogger Will said...

"With every man thee is a woman shaking her head..." Tragic, but funny. Tell your husband that all the amazing women who read your blog are hoping fo rthe best for him. ...And coached baseball? Put that guy to bed!

12:57 PM  
Blogger Rae said...

Oh Good Lord. I definitely would have passed out. I think you're right about the guy thing, though. There are quite a few stories about some good friends of mine, one involves a nail gun shooting my friend through the hand, which he promptly hid behind his back, like if no one noticed it wouldn't really be real. Another story is of a friend who somehow shot an industrial staple through his sternum. How do you do that? Why is it pointing towards you? Anyways, I hope Rob feels better soon, and that you can all have a sense of humor about the new "him" sans-thumb.

1:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My dad found out that if you start off your explanation to the triage nurse at the ER with "I fell off the roof and..." they wisk you right back and start working on you right away! Even if it turns out you only sprained your ankle!

1:27 PM  
Blogger Gidget said...

Oh my gosh!!
Hope it heals quickly...
Hope it stops hurting...
Hope you have a couple of refills of Percocet...

1:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OUCH!!!!!!! Of course, I'm sure your kids thought it was the coolest thing with all that blood flying around. :)
Keep an eye on that man of yours, sounds like he can get himself into trouble quickly.

2:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope your husband feels better soon and that his surgery goes well. Good Luck.

10:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG Chris, your poor guy! That has got to hurt like no other! And wow, only percocet for the pain? I was given percocet after a root canal and it barely did anything for that pain. Yikes. My hubbie was trimming one of our bushes and just about clipped the tip of his finger clean off, only thing that saved it was his finger nail. Hoping he feels better soon.

11:10 PM  
Blogger Kathryn Thompson said...

Ah, ICK. That's awful. I'm glad to hear you're fun in the ER though. That's a relief.

4:14 AM  
Blogger Alice H said...

When I sliced open my thumb opening a tube of silicone caulk in the basement, I started calling for my husband. I was standing at the top of the basement stairs, calling his name over and over, with my left hand cupped under my right-hand thumb to catch the flowing blood (it ended up completely filling my hand). I didn't want to walk out of the basement because then I would have had to clean blood out of the carpet.

I kept calling his name, and he kept just hollering back, "What?" instead of coming to see what was wrong. Finally I hear him stomping over to the basement door, muttering, "This better be good." The look on his face when he saw the cuppa blood was pretty priceless.

3:55 PM  
Blogger Suburban Turmoil said...

Wow. Wow. I just read this and can't believe you're so calm about it. Must come from having seven kids. :)

9:36 PM  
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4:52 AM  

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